One of My First Ah-Hahs
This is a story about one of my first ah-hah’s regarding the reality of organizational culture.
I was at a monthly staff meeting in my first job after getting my MBA. It was early in the year and the regional manager was talking about the annual sales competition. The part of the speech that was my ah-hah was about the prizes offered to folks with the highest sales numbers for the year. Remember, this is in the 1980’s and I am female, interested in the arts and from suburban New Jersey.
Third prize – season tickets for the University of Georgia Bulldog Football Games
Second prize – one-year lease on a Chevy Truck
First prize – all expense-paid trip to go boar hunting in Southern Alabama
My first response was blank as I looked around the room at the other sales folks (mostly male and primarily from the Southeast part of the U.S.) who were getting excited – I realized in that moment that this was not the right job for me. I looked at the sales manager, who had always taken care to support and mentor me, and I could tell that he knew he had lost me, but did not know what to do. My mind was saying – I cannot wait as long as it will take for this organization to understand, let alone appreciate and act upon what motivates me. I just do not “fit-in” here.
Now in hindsight, I wish I had the courage to go to my manager and talk about how the prizes were not going to motivate me; and, I wish my manager would have come to me and asked what was wrong. But, the corporate culture kept us both quiet.
